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The total area of the combined MLRA's covers 54,910 sq. <br />• <br />mi.(35.14 mil. acres) (SCS 1981). Excluding the portions that <br />extend into Wyoming and New Mexico (visually estimated as 25 <br />percent), the area of the peat - producing region was estimated to <br />be 41,000 sq. mi.(26.24 mil. acres). Within this region a total <br />of 12,759 sq.mi.(8.16 mil. acres) (31 percent) have been <br />completely surveyed by the SCS, and form the sample area for this <br />estimate. Of the 12,759 sq.mi. sample area, 85.8 sq.mi.(54,941 <br />acres) can be considered peaty soils. This is equivalent to 0.7 <br />percent of the sample area. Applying this percentage to the area <br />of the peat - producing region produces an estimate of 287 <br />sq.mi.(183,680 acres) of peaty soils within the peat - producing <br />region, and by definition, the entire state. Expressed as a <br />percentage of the total land area of the state -- 103,766 <br />sq.mi.(66.4 mil. acres) (Rand McNally 1982)- -the peaty soil <br />fraction is equivalent to 0.3 percent. <br />The above process provides an area - weighted estimate of the <br />total area of peaty soils within Colorado. It is based on the <br />assumptions that: 1) peaty soils within the state are confined to <br />the mountainous peat- producing region of the state as it is <br />herein defined; and, 2) completed soil survey data accurately <br />reflects the true proportion of peaty soils on the land. The <br />derived estimate shows the total peatland area comprises a very <br />small proportion of the land base in Colorado. The estimate does <br />not consider economic variables as to the value of the deposit, <br />but rather is an estimate of the total area of peaty soils <br />18 • <br />